An Itty Bitty Quail Update!
As you may well know, a while back I got some quail, then quickly tried to lose them to the abyss of the grasslands... The next day I got my first quail egg! And finally, we got their pen together and they've been pretty darn happy ever since!
25 days ago, I put some quail eggs into the incubator and hoped for the best.
Yesterday, one of the eggs hatched! yay! Later in the evening two more hatched and a third was making its way from its egg with much trouble. Last night before bed I told myself that I would help it out of the egg, if it wasn't out already when I woke up.
It wasn't out of the egg this morning so I carefully pulled off the portion it cracked open to give it a little bit of help. I am all about doing things naturally, but something that is trying to make it out of an egg for over 12 hours. I gotta give it a little hand. So, as I said, I carefully pried open the top where it had already made great work in scoring it perfectly around the air sac of the egg. Then I just set it back down and hoped for the best.
It took a long while to get out of the egg and when it finally did it rolled itself over to the side of the incubator. I left it for a while and came back to see that it excreted some kind of green liquid and it did not look good. I let it be for a bit and then noticed some sort of lump deformity. I got husband and roommate to look at the baby, we all decided that it was suffering and called it. It was a sad deal but I feel we made the right choice.
So, I had 8 eggs in there. 7 were viable, 4 have hatched so far with the one not making it. Let's hope that they're females! Haha. There's still a chance for the other three to hatch over the next few days.
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Tomorrow is the eclipse! Some more people are coming over in the morning just to watch it. My mom is here and Husband's friends and their kids are here. I am so ready to get back to our normal routines.
Otherwise, things are going well over here! I am so happy that some of the quail hatched. I need to get their brooder together so I can get them out of the incubator. I am really hoping that the last three hatch but, if not, I am thankful these guys did! I know quail have a high mortality rate as chicks, I hope I can keep these three alive! We did start gathering eggs again in order to do another hatch.
Photos by me using my iPhone 6s, unless stated otherwise!
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Cuteness! Thsey are adorable! I know first hand some of the hatching struggles. We lost three chickens to similar causes. You fail and you succeed though, thanks for sharing some of the "failures" amongst all the success! Wonderful post!
Of course! Sometimes stuff just doesn't work out but I hope these three are healthy enough to live! I'm worried about one having splay leg... but I'll reasses when I get them in the brooder. :)
Little chicks are so cute!!! Seeing them going out of their shells is a very exciting moment that I have always loved watch !! I have not used my incubator for 3 or 4 years, we lent it to several people during these years. This spring my daughter bought some quails with her pocket money and as she has 3 females and a male, she asked me last week who had our incubator because she would love to use it with her quails eggs!! Several people told us that quail meat is tasty and my daughter would love to try it and if she likes the taste, she wants to make a small breeding and sell her birds to the members of our family to make a little pocket money :-) I can not wait to see what will come out of this little project!
That's really exciting and good for her!! I have yet to try it but people equate it to dark chicken meat, which I like! That's our plan also, to use as meat. Hopefully if I get enough quail, I might be able to sell the chicks also!
Happy to see a friendly face on steemit...It's been a while.
Is it not amazing to think about in one second they live without o2 & after they hatch can't live without it.
Or how suddenly they have the Will to break out from the egg and hatch.
I found out that German is not that easy...It's like paddling against the current with German articles , do you have an advice ... will it become more natural to me when I get more advanced in the language ?
Hey there! It had been a long time! How are you?!
Ah, well not any real good advice from me. Haha Try out Duolingo (app and website) maybe for more practice.
Thanks v. good and you ....
Yes great stuff online , as i said i hop it gets easier by time especially the articles der, das , die.
Those are hard ones! Mostly you use der, if I remember correctly. Don't stress on it too much, they will understand. :)
Life's been crazy this month, I am looking forward to getting back to my normal schedule!
Well..take good care of those quails :-)
I'm doing my best! :) haha
those are definitely difficult decisions, but better to act sooner rather than later as it would only lead to suffering, we will be in the same boat next year when we start for chickens and ducks
Chickens are great! I have 22! Haha they're so easy to care for. I have ducks and geese too, but I like the chickens more in terms of ease. The ducks and geese are sure entertaining though!
So precious! It is tricky ...i have even had mamas lay (broody)and they do not have that much success...God always knows who should make it. :) You did great I think! :) I only lost one duck this year so excited as I purchase my new flock this time with metzer's hybrid 300, so hoping for even more eggs this year! Yippe to the homestead!
:)
Melissa
I know it's rare with domesticated quail for them to do their own hatching. Would be a lot easier! Hahha. And much more inspiring, however, hatching by me is pretty cool too! Haha they're soooooo tiny.
Good luck with your ducks!
Thank you so much ..we just received our first 5 eggs this week...manna!
:) Melissa
Congratulations on your first home-hatched quails! Isn't it nice how things are developing.... pretty soon these new birds are going to raise their own chicks, and you'll have more quail than you could ever eat! :-)
By the way, I like the realistic, down-to-earth way you described the unfortunate hatchling. Sure, it's not a happy thing, but mistakes do happen, even to Mother Nature. Good thing she's made sure there are enough brothers and sisters to make up for the loss.
It happens occasionally but I guess there's a real low chance at domestic quail hatching and brooding their own. Boo. That'd be a lot easier for sure!! :)
It was unfortunate but, I'm real glad it didn't affect me emotionally. I just hope I can keep these three pipsqueaks kickin! Haha :)
Squeeeee!!! So much cute!!!
Okay, now that I got that out of the way... Congrats on the success rate so far. Bummer about the one that didn't make it. Nature sucks that way sometimes. Fingers crossed the remaining ones are viable, too!
Dang I could have sworn I replied to this! So sorry about that! - so far, no other bitty babies, they're probably not gonna hatch but... I'll give them until Friday to see. I'm collecting more eggs to incubate and hopefully the next set is more successful! :)
Congratulations on your cute little baby quail! I am so happy for you! Aw, so cute! So sorry to hear about the one that didn't make it but it was the right call; it would have suffered. Tell your Mom I said Hi!
They certainly are stinkin' cute!! I can hardly handle it! When I talk to them, they just stop peeping and just look at me. Hehe.
Aw! That mus be so cute to watch. Have fun with them! : )
It's terribly cute! Can't help but smile! OH I totally had a video to share, oops! Haha
You are their mother 🐥
darth Vader voice Quailing, I am your mother!
Cute! We have an incubator and haven't had much luck with hatching anything. Have you tried hatching other things? Thanks for the update :) looking forward to the eclipse too. Watching from Arkansas. Hope it's decent even though we aren't traveling to the ideal location.
This is the first hatch with it! What kind do you have? I have this HovaBator.
I don't really want any more chickens at the moment, so I haven't tried anything else. Haha.
We haven't got guineas yet. Tried hatching quail though. Let me know if you think guineas are worth acquiring
I wouldn't know? These are quail. I thought about guineas but, I think they might be more trouble than they're worth.
Sorry, I think I got you mixed up with another post I was reading :0. I think the same about guineas in any case. We had the Bob white I believe. We ate their cute little eggs. The people we bought them from sold them in bulk to high end restaurants.
Their eggs really are delicious! I was really surprised at the flavor!!
One thing that's turned me off from Guineas is their independent nature. Not wanting to sleep in a coop at night, and even flying away. Even though a select few are lucky to have them stick around but most end up having them missing.
While they're feathers are nice, man they've got ugly heads!! Haha hard to look at! Lmao
I love hatching things! It's quite addictive! I have had to help out Duck hatching because the shell is so thick and hard. We only intervene if necessary and in small gentle ways. You did a great job! Good luck with the new babies. We always add garlic, ACV, and Honey to new chicks water and always start out with warm water.
I just hope my one female quail keeps laying! I may purchase more eggs for genetic diversity. We will see how the next hatch goes!!